Hillside Presbyterian Church was a historic African American congregation located at 2513 North 30th Street. Founded in 1920, the church continued until 1954. It was one of Omaha’s earliest Black churches. In addition to its formal name, this church was referred to as the “Omaha Negro Presbyterian Church.”
In 1919, African American lawyer Harrison J. Pinkett lobbied the Omaha Presbytery to open a Black church in North Omaha. As a response, St. Paul Presbyterian Church was founded by Rev. Charles Taylor in 1920.

Originally called Seward Street Presbyterian Church, the congregation changed its name to St. Paul soon after it opened.

Rev. Taylor was a musician, composer, writer, and an ardent civil rights activist. Apparently his activism made the congregation uncomfortable though, and he was removed from the church in 1924. Soon after he left, the original church building was burned down under suspicious circumstances.

Rev. Charles L. Trusty followed Rev. Taylor. In 1925, the congregation moved into the former Hillside Congregational Church at 2513 North 30th, at Ohio Street. During the time Rev. Williams was at Hillside, it developed a stellar choir and hosted a lot of musical events. The civic orchestra, traveling Christian choirs, and other groups regularly played during this era.
A Jamaican named Rev. John Simeon Williams led Hillside in the 1930s. In 1937, Rev. Williams became the leader of the Omaha Presbtry, which extended from the river to Columbus, Nebraska. He was the only Black Presbyterian minister at the time, and his congregation only had 57 members in it. However, the choir was well-respected around the Midwest.

In 1940, the North Side YMCA converted the basement of the church into a gym that was run by the City of Omaha Recreation Department. Rev. J. E. Blackmore was the minister of the church until 1945. Edmund W. Gordon (1921-2016) was a missionary charged by the Omaha Presbytry to serve as a missionary at the church after Blackmore. After Gordon’s service in North Omaha, he went on to lead a larger congregation in central Omaha, then became a very influential psychology professor, researcher, and author.


In 1947, the church’s original building burnt down, and Hillside began meeting in other church buildings the following month. In 1950 the church secured a building permit at 2852 Miami Street, on the northwest corner of North 28th and Miami. Whitney Young, leader of the Omaha Urban League, spoke here a few times.

Then in April 1954, the congregation folded. With little fanfare, the building was sold to the North Side YWCA, which dedicated the building in January 1955. They held programming there into the 1960s, when the North Side YWCA was merged with the Omaha YWCA.

In 1957, the all-white Bethany Presbyterian Church at North 20th and Willis Street merged with Hillside. Bethany was Omaha’s first German Presbyterian church, and was founded in 1881. Its building was located at 20th and Willis Streets, and when the congregation diminished in size and the building was in terrible shape, the Omaha Presbytery merged them with Hillside.
The conjoined congregation took over the former North Presbyterian Church at North 24th and Wirt Streets to become Calvin Memorial Presbyterian Church. Celebrated as an integrated congregation, the church membership became all African American within a decade. Rev. Charles Tyler, who led Hillside, became minister of the new congregation and stayed with it for several years afterwards.
Calvin Memorial Presbyterian Church closed in the early 1990s. The second Hillside Presbyterian Church building stands today, and is home to a congregation called Thine Will Church of God in Christ.
You Might Like…
MY ARTICLES ABOUT THE HISTORY OF OMAHA’S NEAR NORTH SIDE
GROUPS: Black People | Jews and African Americans | Jews | Hungarians | Scandinavians | Chinese | Italians
EVENTS: Redlining | North Omaha Riots | Stone Soul Picnic | Native Omaha Days Festival
BUSINESSES: Club Harlem | Dreamland Ballroom | Omaha Star Office | 2621 North 16th Street | Calhoun Hotel | Warden Hotel | Willis Hotel | Broadview Hotel | Carter’s Cafe | Live Wire Cafe | Fair Deal Cafe | Metoyer’s BBQ | Skeet’s | Storz Brewery | 24th Street Dairy Queen | 1324 N. 24th St. | Ritz Theater | Alhambra Theater | 2410 Lake Street | Carver Savings and Loan Association | Blue Lion Center | 9 Center Variety Store
CHURCHES: St. John’s AME Church | Zion Baptist Church | Mt. Moriah Baptist Church | St. Philip Episcopal Church | St. Benedict Catholic Parish | Holy Family Catholic Church | Bethel AME Church | Cleaves Temple CME Church
HOMES: A History of | Logan Fontenelle Housing Projects | The Sherman | The Climmie | Ernie Chambers Court aka Strelow Apartments | Hillcrest Mansion | Governor Saunders Mansion | Memmen Apartments
SCHOOLS: Kellom | Lake | Long | Cass Street | Izard Street | Dodge Street
ORGANIZATIONS: Red Dot Athletic Club | Omaha Colored Baseball League | Omaha Rockets | YMCA | Midwest Athletic Club | Charles Street Bicycle Park | DePorres Club | NWCA | Elks Hall and Iroquois Lodge 92 | American Legion Post #30 | Bryant Resource Center | People’s Hospital | Bryant Center
NEIGHBORHOODS: Long School | Logan Fontenelle Projects | Kellom Heights | Conestoga | 24th and Lake | 20th and Lake | Charles Street Projects
INDIVIDUALS: Edwin Overall | Rev. Russel Taylor | Rev. Anna R. Woodbey | Rev. Dr. John Albert Williams | Rev. John Adams, Sr. | Dr. William W. Peebles | Dr. Craig Morris | Dr. John A. Singleton, DDS | Dr. Aaron M. McMillan | Mildred Brown | Dr. Marguerita Washington | Eugene Skinner | Dr. Matthew O. Ricketts | Helen Mahammitt | Cathy Hughes | Florentine Pinkston | Amos P. Scruggs | Nathaniel Hunter | Bertha Calloway
OTHER: 26th and Lake Streetcar Shop | Webster Telephone Exchange Building | Kellom Pool | Circus Grounds | Ak-Sar-Ben Den
MY ARTICLES ABOUT HISTORIC CHURCHES IN NORTH OMAHA
GENERAL: Directory | Black Churches | Florence Churches
METHODIST: 17th Street | Pearl Memorial UMC | St. John’s AME | Bethel AME | Cleaves Temple | Ames Avenue | Trinity | Walnut Hill | 18th Street |
BAPTIST: Mount Moriah | Zion | Immanuel |
CATHOLIC: Holy Family | St. Benedict the Moor | St. John’s | Holy Angels | Sacred Heart | St. Cecilia
PRESBYTERIAN: Calvin Memorial | Hillside | First United | Covenant | St. Paul
EPISCOPALIAN: St. Phillips |
COGIC: New Bethel | Faith
LUTHERAN: Hope | St. Paul
OTHERS: Mt. Calvary |
RELATED: St. Clare’s Monastery | Omaha Presbyterian Theological Seminary | North Omaha Catholic Schools | Black Churches | Florence Churches
Bonus Pics
